


Ghosts

by haloburns



Series: Band Practice [5]
Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, M/M, Sad, Song fic, ghost by mandopony, i love this game and these characters, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 18:12:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12347910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haloburns/pseuds/haloburns
Summary: Mae loves Possum Springs... She tries to make sense of everything happening to her by writing in her journal and drawing things as she goes through one hell of a week back home and something beautiful comes out of it.





	1. Casey and the Band

**Author's Note:**

> okay so im actually going to be doing this one differently than the rest??? im making this multichaptered because they just dont feel right as just sections, so there will be a few updates, but the story is mostly finished as is
> 
> based on the song "Ghosts" by MandoPony

_You’re still_ _here,_  Mae wrote next to crude portraits of her friends after their first band practice. It had been so long since she’d seen them and she was genuinely surprised to still see them all here. She knew Gregg had talked for years of leaving, and Angus seemed desperate to leave. Bea had always had grand plans, but now she was running her dad’s hardware store… Life had moved on while Mae hadn’t changed much. Things in Possum Springs, surprisingly, had changed. A lot.

Mae had come home because it was familiar. But this Possum Springs… It wasn’t familiar at all.

“I’ll never understand ‘progress’,” Mae told herself as she left for the surprise Band Practice Gregg had called together.

Maybe she’d find some normal in band practice… She had missed playing bass, missed joking with Casey and Gregg while Angus smiled from Gregg’s side.

* * *

Her idea of normal dissipated as they told her Casey had been missing. Pain shot through her heart as she thought of never seeing Casey again.

“Some people think he hopped a train and just never looked back,” Gregg explained, for once pushing his food around on his plate. If Mae thought she was close with Casey, she was dead wrong. Gregg and Casey had been friends for years, dating on and off as it suited them until Gregg found Angus. They were still thick as thieves and welcomed Mae into their devious arms when she’d needed an outlet. They had been so close…


	2. Lunch Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae spends more time with her friends, thankful for their company.

_I think_ _ I’m fine _ became Mae’s go-to response. She didn’t really know how she felt anymore. Things felt wrong anymore, and it made her feel more and more like shapes.  _ Maybe we’re just ghosts, cause I can’t feel the ground… and all these shapes, they don’t make one damn sound...  _ Mae stared at her ceiling, tears blurring the blankness of it. Too much had happened in too short if a time. Her most recent nightmare flitted through her mind’s eye in fragments. Goosebumps spread across her arms and she shivered. The words in her journal mocked her, a few simple stars drawn around the inky words.

She jumped from her bed suddenly, throwing on her boots and practically running down the stairs. After a brief conversation with 24-hour mom, she ran out the door, desperate to be with people. Mae’s first stop was Bea, smiling at her less than warm welcome. Mae sat on the counter as Bea went about her day, providing sarcastic quips and light-hearted stories that had Bea laughing so hard she snorted (Bea swears it never happened).

While Bea was helping a customer, Mae kicked her feet and thought for about her and Bea’s relationship. Mae had fucked up royally when they were in high school. And Bea kinda hated her. And Mae  _ knew _ she should feel sorry, or upset that Bea hated her a little, but there was just  _ nothing _ . With a light bulb on above her head, Mae dug in her pocket for her journal and quickly flipped through it to find an empty page and scribbled down a quick thought.  _ “I wish I could say that I feel sad, but I think I forgot every single emotion I ever had…”  _

She was drawing large tears chasing a tiny Mae around when Bea returned to the counter and drew Mae’s attention elsewhere.

At lunch, Bea shooed her out, telling her to go bug someone else. Reluctantly, she did. On her way to see Gregg she stopped in to say hi to Angus.

“You want to go to lunch with me and Gregg?” he asked, walking with her to the door.

“Are you sure I won’t be intruding?” Mae said nervously. Angus had made his feelings known about her and Gregg always being together and causing mischief. And in a roundabout way, ruining the future they have planned for themselves.

“I’m inviting you, you won’t be intruding,” he reassured her with a small smile. Angus had rarely smiled these last few days, so Mae took it as a good sign. They burst into the Snalcon, laughing at Angus’ impression of their old principal getting angry at Gregg and Mae’s mischievous antics. They looked to the counter where Gregg sat with cups on his ears again.

“The ocean?” Mae asked, propelling herself with her Super Powerful Jump (and Angus’ laced together fingers) onto the counter.

“Nah, I’ve decided it’s a good look on me. What are you both doing here?” He asked, leaning forward to kiss Angus’ cheek.

“Bea shooed me out of the Pickaxe and then I stopped in to say hi to Angus–”

“And I asked her to lunch with us,” Angus said, his smile brighter than dusk stars when he looked at Gregg.

“Let’s go!” Gregg ran out so fast, his cups slipped and clattered to the floor. Mae chased after him, Angus followed, a fond smile on his face.

* * *

 

On the walk there, Gregg and Angus chatted about their plans for the future. Gregg provided wildly outlandish ideas while Angus provided the reality of the town they were living in.

“There’s just not enough jobs and not enough people for any jobs that are open. Everyone’s leaving…” Angus said wistfully while Gregg nodded emphatically while shoving pierogis in his mouth. Gregg took over the conversation with lighter topics while Mae fished her journal from her pocket. 

_ This town is broken down and we’re just holding on _ .  _ All the days are so routine... _

Her mom and dad had caught her up on the new things in the town since she’d been gone. The glass factory was gone and her dad worked at the new Ham Panther out by the highway. Bea ran the Ol’ Pickaxe while her father withered away. Angus worked at the Video Outpost Too and repaired computers in his spare time for extra cash. Gregg worked almost open to close at the Snack Falcon. Mae had heard other stories similar to her family and friends’ when she wandered through town. People talked of stale jobs, more people being laid off, kids leaving town and never looking back.

Gregg looked at Mae expectantly when she shook her head of the weary thoughts circling.

“You okay, Mae?” Real concern showed in his face. Mae looked at him and, for the first time, she noticed faint lines on his face that hadn’t been there before, faint circles under his eyes from the long ass shifts he worked to make ends meet.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Promise.” Her smile felt more forced than it should have been but she didn’t want to worry Gregg and Angus more. If Angus was worried, then he’d talk to Bea and that meant unholy wrath. Still, Angus wrinkled his brow at her phrasing. Shrugging it off, Mae went back to joking around with Gregg and teasing Angus, who gave back just as much in turn.


	3. The Snalcon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mae and Gregg get deep in a closed Snack Falcon.

“Everything sucks forever,” Mae told Gregg sitting against the counter at the Snack Falcon. They sat on the floor behind the counter, the front door closed and locked, the sun setting slowly past the doors.

“It does,” Gregg said from his planking position next to Mae’s leg on the floor.

“Will it ever get better?” She asked, looking at him. Tears shone in her eyes as she thought of her life continuing on in the same manner they had been going. The nightmares, the lack of sleep, the splitting headache, the creepy ghost following her around.

“It has too,” he replied softly. “Otherwise humans would just stop living, wouldn’t they? You just gotta hope it gets better, and eventually, it will.” Mae sniffed and looked towards the setting sun. A tear slipped down her cheek and she told Gregg quietly, “I think I just wanna go to sleep, and not really ever wake up.”

“Sometimes I feel that way too.”

“What do you do when you feel like that?” The sky had turned a shade of orange Mae had never seen recreated anywhere and a weird, happy feeling settled into her chest. The sun looked so much better in Possum Springs than it did anywhere else.

“I curl up in Angus’ lap and he plays with my hair and sometimes sings and I feel a little better.”

“...” Mae looked at Gregg who now had his eyes closed. “Can I come cuddle you and Angus sometime?”

“Whatever you need, Mae. We’re always here for you.”

Mae didn’t intend on spending her evening sobbing in a darkened Snack Falcon and yet.


	4. Gods and the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dreams or nightmares?

Mae met God. 

When she met them, they were very short with her. On reflection, Mae decided it’s because they’re an all-powerful being and they see everything at once and it becomes hard to entertain silly mortal questions like “Are you God?”

_ I think there is a God. I think he hates his job. _

She doodled the giant cat with glowing eyes she’d met the night before at breakfast while her mother read across the table from her. When she finished, she kissed her mom’s cheek and left for the day, wandering around Possum Springs. She met Mr. Chazokov on his rooftop again and together they searched for dusk stars, and he told her their stories. In the middle of the craziness of her life, the calm, accented words from Mr. Chazokov made her feel  _ normal _ . She gave a bitter internal chuckle at that.  _ I may have found the stars, but I sure as hell have lost my mind before now.  _ Sitting on a rooftop after leaving Mr. Chazokov’s, Mae scribbled it into her journal. Mr. Chazokov didn’t ask questions, he just told stories and let Mae feel normal, if only for a little while.


	5. Martyrs, Milkshakes, and Move-Ins

She’d never been one to be a martyr, but this kind of thing needed to be done alone… And yet her friends had followed her anyway, unsure of what they would find at the center of everything, but they still followed her.

Once they’d climbed out of the well, they wandered down to the Clik Clak, needing comfort food.

“Gregg and I are moving out to Bright Harbor,” Angus announced over fries and milkshakes. Gregg stared open-mouthed at his boyfriend while Bea hid a small smile. “And we want you guys to move in with us.”

Bea had to rub Mae’s back after she’d choked on a chocolate milkshake covered fry, but as soon as Mae was assured to live, she turned to Angus.

“Why?” she asked quietly. Angus didn’t like Mae intruding on his and Gregg’s relationship, and while the two had become a little closer this week, he wanted her and Bea to move in with them?

“Where do we go, if we’re not together?” Gregg said with a wide grin on his face.

“After what we’ve all been through tonight, and in our lives, why shouldn’t we move in together?” Angus elaborated. Bea shook her head and Mae knew she was thinking about her dad and the store and all the millions of things Bea always thought about.

“We’ll discuss it later,” Mae said in a rather mature tone. (No one bothered to mention her mouth was ringed with chocolate milkshake.)


	6. At the End of Everything

The day after...everything happened, Mae left her house and everything felt... weird. The day was so mundane, but Mae’s world had just been shattered. And yet, no one knew. No one knew of the atrocity people had committed, looking for a world that never really existed. And Casey… Not knowing what else to do, Mae climbed the roofs of the town, wandering. As she looked down at Possum Springs going on about its life, unaware of what had just happened, she couldn’t help but think  _ I never really understood anything at all...And now I’m back where I began…  _ Being here, in this town, had been the start of it all. For her. But so much had come before her. And it looked like there would be little to come after it. But she didn’t feel sad?  _ We’re all just particles intertwined, with all the beauty we can find in this shitty world _ . Mae looked down at the words filling the last few pages, drawings scribbled in near them. 

_ Maybe I’ll figure it out some other time,  _ she thought.  _ Or maybe the past just ain’t what it’s cracked up to be…  _ Those guys sure as hell thought it was. The whole idea of a cult honestly threw her for a damn loop.  _ A cult? In my town? I think I fell too deep… Ugh, I need a nap _ . And they had sacrificed Casey, and many others to do so.

Casey… There was a pang in her chest as she thought about her and Gregg’s partner in crime. He was gone forever, and that hurt almost worst than Grandad’s death. Grandad had lived his life; Casey’s was ended because some cultists believed he was going nowhere fast. And so what if he was? They would never know because someone decided to play God…  _ Maybe I’ll find a way to move on _ , she wrote beneath “RIP Casey.” A small heart was colored underneath her words, mirroring the one she’d drawn for Grandad.

Instead of wallowing in her self-pity as she was wont to do, Mae wandered down to the bridge near the edge of town, wanting to simply exist for a while. Sitting between the gaps in the rail, Mae stared down at the river. Bare trees blinked back at her. All the leaves were gone… except for one directly beneath Mae’s feet. One lone leaf gentle swayed in the wind for a few seconds before finally snapping off its limb and spiraling towards the ground. Mae understood how it felt. 

Snow soon followed the leaf. Soft flakes lazily floated down from gentle gray clouds and for once, Mae felt at peace.

She looked down at the journal in her hands, thinking about all it contained. Flipping through the pages, an idea formed in her head. It came to her fully formed, and when she thought more about it later, she believed Sky Cat had more to do with it than Mae’s own genius.

The words flowed and the melodies and rhythms came to her quickly until she had a full-fledged song. Proud, she grinned and tore out the pages and stuffed them into her pocket. She stood from the bridge and took off running, wanting to meet Bea before band practice. There was a lot to talk about.

Gregg and Angus walked into the Party Barn, smiling and laughing. They joined Bea and Mae at the front of the stage, where they all exchanged brief pleasantries and jabs before Angus looked around at the three of them, before looking at Gregg expectantly.

“So what are we playing?” Angus asked. 

“Actually…” Mae grinned and handed him a sheet with lyrics written on it before handing more wrinkled pages with notes and rhythms scribbled hastily onto the page.


	7. And Now I'm Back Where It All Began

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One last song...

_ Maybe there’s a reason, maybe there’s a rhyme… _

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this! the formatting is totally weird but I really like it???
> 
> hmu on tumblr at little--feather.tumblr.com if u wanna scream about nitw or talk theory!!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1B80DsHwc8 here's the link to the song, it's amazing and MandoPony has done Weird Autumn and Die Anywhere Else too, so listen to those. I'm just waiting on a legit cover on Pumpkin Head Guy to surface


End file.
